Rebuilding trust in governments through Open Contracting

Building trust between citizens and governments is crucial to successfully address, in a collaborative and engaged manner, many of the issues that affect the everyday lives of citizens, like corruption, government inefficiency and lack of service delivery.

In fact the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer stated that the number of “truster countries” are at an all-time low, reflecting a general decline of people’s trust in institutions of governments, NGOs, business and media.

Public contracting, as one of the activities most prone to fall victim to inefficiency and corruption, is often cited as one of those areas in which the trust between citizens and government is most precarious.

That's mostly because of the lack of transparency of the governments and limited opportunities of participation of non-state actors in decision-making processes.

The case of public contracting reassures that openness and collaboration are essential for improving the relationship between citizens and governments.

By doing so, it sets the environment for a wide range of actors to be able to collaborate with each other to improve efficiency and end corruption in public contracting. As a result fostering a mutually reinforcing dynamic in which governments are worth of the trust of their citizens, and in which citizens and governments can work together towards common goals.

The current crisis in trust serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of advancing the Open Contracting agenda.

The increasing demand for openness, transparency and participation is a great opportunity for procurement practitioners, transparency and open government specialists, to help build the trust of citizens, journalists and civil society organizations, by transforming the way public contracting occurs.